Category: Business Climate

County Board Approves 2016 Budget with No Property Tax Increase

Posted on | by brent
The DuPage County Board approved the 2016 budget on Nov. 24, which reduces spending and includes no property tax increase for the eighth consecutive year. The budget is $444.4 million, a decrease of $5.1 million from the previous year’s approved budget. It includes $56.5 million in capital projects for stormwater, drainage and road construction and $66.9 million in property taxes. Continue reading →

Brewster Creek Business Park Continues Driving Economic Development in Bartlett

Posted on | by brent
Home to 75 businesses housed in 35 buildings, the Village of Bartlett has a sophisticated network of connected businesses, suppliers, and associates in a specific field that are all located in the same geographical area, known as a business cluster. The Village of Bartlett is creating this type of occurrence at Brewster Creek Business Park, located just west of Route 59 along Stearns Road. Cheese Merchants of America recently relocated its highly successful business to Brewster Creek, joining Greco & Sons Foods, Rana Meal Solutions and Get Fresh Produce in the business park. Continue reading →

Suburban Offices Refilling Office Space Left by Companies Moving to City

Posted on | by brent
By: Ryan Ori, Crain’s Chicago Business A run of big-name companies moving offices from the suburbs to downtown Chicago is a lift for the city, but many of the jilted villages and landlords are refilling the abandoned space, signaling that suburbia still is a valued address for business. The one-way flow into the city has been accelerating. In just the past month, Kraft Heinz announced it will move its Kraft Foods Group headquarters to the East Loop from Northfield, while ConAgra Foods and Motorola Solutions are in talks to lease chunks of downtown office space big enough for hundreds of employees. Mead Johnson Nutrition has confirmed it will relocate from Glenview to a West Loop tower now under construction. And McDonald’s has begun filling a satellite office in River North, 20 miles from its Oak Brook campus. Continue reading →

Comcast Adds 200 Jobs in DuPage County

Posted on | by brent

New Technician Support and Logistics jobs created will play a crucial role in efforts to enhance the customer experience

Comcast announced today that the company is hiring nearly 200 new employees as part of an initiative to enhance the customer experience. The new hires will join about 290 existing Workforce Operations employees to create two new centers of excellence, a “Technician Support Center” and “Technician Logistics Center.” Continue reading →

Greatest Mid-Year Velocity in Seven Years

Posted on | by brent

JLL’s Chicago Suburban Office Market Report

As vacancies have tightened across the suburbs, rental rates have been increasing. Year-over-year, Class A rental rates increased across all but one submarket at the same time that market wide vacancy rates decreased year-over-year. While North Lake County’s Class A rental rate did not increase year-over-year it did increase from last quarter rising by $1.57. This trend will continue as vacancy rates tighten further. This tightening will be supported by current tenants in the market looking for a combined 6.7 million square feet of space. Continue reading →